Coaches, parents seek more education for youth athletes about the dangers of prescription drug abuse

Jul. 24, 2013

Dawn Fosket looks at photos of her son, Michael, on Wednesday at her daughter's home in Wellington. Michael died last August from an overdose of prescription painkillers. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Written by

Dawn Fosket can't hold back the tears during an interview about her son, Michael, on Wednesday in Wellington. Michael died last August from an overdose of prescription painkillers. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

This photo of the Fosket family shows, from left, Dawn, Michael, Dave and Diane, at Michael's graduation from Poudre High School in 2006. Michael died last August from an overdose of prescription painkillers. / Courtesy of Dawn Fosket

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Dawn Fosket has a message for parents: Prescription drug abuse is a real problem that’s not going away.

Deaths attributed to prescription drugs nearly doubled in Colorado from 2000 to 2010, climbing from 228 to 414, according to the Denver County Sheriff’s Office. More than twice as many people in Colorado died from prescription drug overdoses in 2010 than from drunk-driving crashes.

When the next batch of statistics comes out, Fosket’s son, Mike, will be marked among those lost to a war she says parents and educators are losing.

Three years after Mike graduated from Poudre High School in 2006, he suffered a serious back injury in a car wreck. The pain lingered long after the crash.

At first, Dawn said Mike medicated with prescription marijuana. Soon he moved on to recreational use of narcotic pain relievers.

“Mike always had a reason or an excuse,” she said, recalling some of her discussions with Mike about multiple prescription bottles.

On Aug. 2, 2012, Mike died from an overdose.

Now Dawn is willing to do whatever it takes to prevent another Northern Colorado family from losing a member to a spreading killer.

That includes hosting the inaugural Mike Fosket Memorial golf tournament, held last weekend at Mountain Vista Golf Course, where Dawn partnered with Team Fort Collins to raise $3,900 for substance abuse prevention.

The CDC says drug overdoses have increased since the 1970s. The number of deaths has never been higher, and the CDC attributes that to a 10-fold increase in the use of opioid painkillers in the past 20 years. Opioids such as oxycodone kill nearly twice as many people as cocaine and five times more people than heroin, according to a July 2010 CDC brief.

“Narcotic pain relievers are causing a great deal of dependence and abuse,” Team Fort Collins Executive Director Ashley Kasprzak said. “Individuals are falling into this without being predisposed to drug use.”

Mike wasn’t necessarily predisposed to drug use. But he did have what Dawn called an “addictive personality.”

(Page 2 of 4)

He didn’t play organized sports once he got to Poudre High, but was more into BMX riding. And boy was he good, Dawn said. She has pictures of Mike doing crazy tricks, smiling while doing what he loved. He was addicted to the sport.

“Oh my heavens yes,” Dawn said. “He would take snow shovels, squeegees, go to EPIC in the dead of winter, and scoop everything away so he could ride. He was very addicted. We thought it was great.”

That addictive personality turned on Mike, though. And Dawn worries the same could happen to other kids at even younger ages.

“That would never happen to us — that happens to other people,” said Dawn, relaying the thoughts on her own mind before Mike died. “At the rate we’re going, everyone is going to know someone who has died from opiates.”

A growing concern

Prescription drug abuse has been called epidemic nationally and in Colorado, and though overdoses are rare among high school athletes, some Colorado teachers and coaches cite the need for more education before tragedy strikes.

No Fort Collins coaches could recollect one of their athletes having a problem with an overdose at the hands of prescription drugs. Still, many expressed willingness to participate in enhanced educational outreach opportunities.

“It’s difficult, because until a tragedy happens — somebody gets killed — it doesn’t come up in the curriculum,” said Barrett Golyer, Poudre High School’s wrestling coach.

Golyer called the death of Colorado State University student Samantha Spady in September 2004 a factor in Poudre School District placing a bigger focus on alcohol abuse.

PSD curriculum covers the proper use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, but Golyer said execution of that curriculum looks different in each classroom.

“The district sets our sex ed curriculum, but we haven’t had a designated health curriculum,” he said. “It depends on the teacher. The concern I have, is there’s some gaps in the curriculum. There’s no real education on some of the harmful things.”

PSD spokeswoman Danielle Clark said the issue is covered extensively in district high schools. She said PSD has worked to address concerns like those of Golyer’s when several teachers met to learn how to align curriculum from school to school and across grade levels.

(Page 3 of 4)

Poudre baseball coach Marc Buffington said he used to teach a health course that covered abused substances and called the piece on prescription drug abuse “pretty lengthy.” But there’s still a need for more education, he said.

“Through sports and through coaches,” Buffington said. “I don’t see why that wouldn’t be a great avenue for education. I would be all for it. If there is some education out there for that.”

Pressures and prevention

Though none of the high school coaches interviewed for this story remembered a significant problem with prescription drug abuse among their athletes, it has invaded other parts of their lives.

Fort Collins High School wrestling coach Mark Moser said the issue hit close to home when a co-worker in a different state overdosed on painkillers he was prescribed after suffering an injury during a pickup basketball game.

Athletes deal with more injuries than the average person, the coaches all agreed. How they deal with those injuries, and the warnings and education provided about prescribed medicines, may vary from coach to coach and school to school, though.

“For us, Riley Thomas had surgery from a broken collarbone,” Moser said. “We talked about (the dangers of prescription drugs). He didn’t even take the pain pills except for the first day after surgery.”

But prescription drugs can enter high schools through an injury — be that of a student, parent or other relative. And high school kids are pretty resourceful. Kasprzak said she has been told by school resource officers that prescription drug abuse is a growing problem among students.

“I don’t think it’s incredibly prevalent,” said Kasprzak, who called alcohol the drug of choice for students. “At schools we have heard in both Loveland and Fort Collins students having pill parties. The admission is to put a pill in a bowl. You never know what you’re getting. That can be incredibly dangerous and can kill someone in one outing.”

That danger is a big reason Steve Hogan said he thinks parents should maintain strict supervision of their kids, especially if those kids ever need a prescription for a narcotic pain reliever.

(Page 4 of 4)

Hogan, father of former Fort Collins lacrosse player Chase Hogan, said he and his son suffered broken collarbones less than two years apart. Chase’s happened near the beginning of the lacrosse season, after Steve already had gone through the process.

Hogan said the combination of him knowing about the pain after surgery and having someone close to his family who has dealt with narcotic painkiller addiction helped when it came to managing Chase’s prescription after surgery.

“Those first couple of days (for Chase) were tough,” said Hogan, who said doctors at the Orthopedic & Spine Center of the Rockies prescribed just 10 painkillers. “We didn’t have any issues with it. For Chase, Ibuprofen seemed to work best. They did a good job of counseling him for it.”

He said the orthopedic center didn’t have to preach to him.

“I’m well aware of what’s going on with society,” he said, but added that more education — for both parents and their children — would be welcomed.

“Parents trust the kids too much a lot of times,” he said. “We would never allow our kids to have any prescriptions and have control over that. … A lot of people think it doesn’t happen here. We live in a great town and great area. But it’s here. The problems are out there.”